Less is more?

If you ever feel an overwhelming desire to be patronised, apply for a teaching position. 

If you’re lucky, the school leadership team will fairly ungraciously deign to grant you an audience give you an interview, and you’re expected to enter the process in nothing less than a spirit of pure genuflection - tugging your forelock and bent over double while holding out your hands like Oliver Twist begging for more. The two-page personal statement you have to include with the application form is more a list of reasons why you think their school is a veritable educational utopia and how blessed you would be to even be allowed to cross their hallowed threshold, rather than showcasing your own achievements. 

What then usually follows is a day of humble grovelling, as you listen to them tell you that you need them more than they will ever need you… however without any explanation of why, if they’re such wonderful people to work for, they’ve got ten teaching vacancies to fill for September. Afterwards, you will be told you’ve been ‘amazing’, ‘outstanding’, ‘just what they’re looking for’, blah, blah, blah - but the job goes to their current trainee or former pupil. 

Of course, not every school is like this but the whole process is still pretty brutal, not least having to spend the day with all the other candidates. There are five vacancies I will be applying for in the next few days, across three schools that I would be equally happy to join, but I do feel like just writing what's in my picture!

This may all sound ridiculously cynical but I challenge any teacher to prove me wrong!